Low adoption and insufficient research has slowed the movement of Google Maps indoors, a Google software engineer said today at the Indoor Positioning and Indoor Navigation conference held at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. ...

However, gathering indoor maps presents unique challenges compared to outdoor because it requires acquiring building maps from building owners and because GPS coverage is frequently poor inside. Location can be triangulated without GPS by using multiple Wi-Fi hotspots. Kadous estimated that Maps can currently estimate a user’s location inside within 10 metres.

A major issue for indoor maps “is we haven’t yet reached the point where people really know about us,” Kadous said. It’s a “chicken-and-the-egg” problem where users won’t use indoor maps until more locations are supported, while businesses won’t provide maps of their locations until they see greater consumer demand, he said.